African Timeline

By smithmws
  • 1400

    Sea voyages

    Europeans began to make long sea voyages.
  • 1400

    Trade

    Africans beyond the Sahara began trading with Europeans who had recently arrived on their coastlines.
  • 1500

    Trading Slaves

    African traders began to sell enslaved people.
  • 1500

    Trading Posts

    Europeans had built trading posts on the African coast.

  • Colonization

    Southern and Eastern Africa were also colonized.

  • Slave Trade Outlawed?

    Slave trade was mostly outlawed in this time.

  • Colonization

    European powers began to colonize Africa.

  • Regaining Power

    Africans regained power over their own lands.

  • European Powers

    Several European powers controlled different parts of Africa.

  • Independence

    African countries gained mostly all of their independence in the mid-1900s.

  • South Africa

    In South Africa, independence came as early as 1910.

  • South Africa

    South Africa gained its independence from Britain.

  • Nelson Mandela International Day

    Nelson Mandela's birthday.

  • Kikuyu

    In Kenya, the Kikuyu people started a political organization to secure their freedom from Britain.

  • Ethiopia

    This was the only country that was never colonized, although it was invaded Italy failed to conquer it.

  • Independence Movements

    African independence movements gained momentum at this time.

  • Apartheid

    South Africa adopted apartheid.

  • Africa

    The majority of Africa gained its independence at this time.

  • Ghana

    Ghana became independent.

  • Nigeria

    Nigeria is now independent.

  • Belgian Congo

    Belgium granted the Belgian Congo its independence

  • Nelson Mandela

    Nelson Mandela played a key role in ending apartheid. He was an ANC leader who was eventually jailed in 1962.

  • Kenya

    Kenya is now independent.

  • Joseph Mobutu

    An army leader named Joseph Mobutu renamed the Belgian Congo to Zaire.

  • Igbo

    At this time an oil-rich region controlled by the Igbo ethnic group attempted to leave Nigeria.

  • F.W. de Klerk

    F.W. de Klerk, South Africa's president from 1989 to 1994 finally realized that apartheid was destroying South Arica.

  • Nelson Mandela

    F.W. de Klerk released Nelson Mandela from jail and put an end to apartheid.

  • Nobel Peace Prize

    Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk won the Nobel Peace Prize.

  • The New President

    South Africans of all races voted together to have Nelson Mandela as their president.

  • Arab Spring

    This was a movement for more democracy that is now known as the Arab Spring.